The Orange Juice Blog welcomes three new entries to the OC Blogosphere, launched this month by friends of ours:

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Orange County’s favorite porcupine Cynthia Ward, fresh off her winning ballot case* against Steven Albert Chavez Lodge, has just launched her “Think OC” blog – which is actually at thinkforyourselfoc.com, the shorter URL being apparently unavailable. But by all means, DO think for yourself!

This looks to be a very valuable addition to our community, much more than some of what passes for conservative or Republican blogging around here. Principled Anaheim conservative Cynthia Ward, flung off the shipwrecked Red County but proudly rejecting this blog’s invitation, is joined by what she assures me is at least one liberal blogger. And what’s not to love about self-described “non-partisan, kool-aid-free views on politics, policy makers, and the passing parade that affects the Orange County area?”

Sounds like we should put up an RSS feed to this blog, once we figure out what the code is…

* (Oh, Cynthia’s “winning case” against Chavez Lodge? I know that the Lodge apologists at OC Political like to say she lost that one, since Steve gets to keep his Chavez, and she IS going to have to worry about covering her lawyer’s costs. But when you take into account his loss of “retired policeman,” the awkward insertion of “Albert,” and the fact that he was hoping to be alphabetized under Chavez but now according to the registrar will be alphabetized under Lodge after all putting him lower on the ballot…and I’ve talked to more than one experienced politician who thinks it was a clearcut Cynthia victory simply because the alphabet soup of “Steven Albert Chavez Lodge” sounds so SILLY!)

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Meanwhile former Juice blogger Geoff Willis, who left us in a huff half a year ago, has started HIS new blog, which appears to be well-done, getting lots of hits and actually sparking some intelligent debate. All you liberals, moderates and libertarians who miss busting Geoff’s chops can find him now at the Thinking Right Blog! (*cough* he WOULD call it that.)

As you would expect, Geoff’s new blog is highly partisan (i.e. unstintingly anti-Democrat and anti-Obama) and focused entirely on national and world issues rather than local. He remains staunchly opposed to “racism” (which he seems to almost always perceive as directed against whites,) “sexism” (ditto against males,) “bigotry” (ditto against Christians) and “censorship” or “political correctness” (meaning whenever people ridicule or criticize what he and other rightwingers say.) Surprisingly though, I don’t immediately perceive any “Fast and Furious” material, or as he used to call it here, “Obama Murdergate!” Maybe that scandal isn’t panning out the way he had hoped.

But Geoff HAS been getting a lot of traffic – and before you start thinking that’s because of Craigslist or something, I have to admit that he is getting a lot of very good arguments going back and forth on his incendiary pieces – and that’s even BEFORE MY flying monkeys descend on his blog – Anon, Anonster, Demagogue, Rapscallion, Diamond!

Oh, I should also tell you – Geoff has a co-pontificator named Becky Jones, who writes on foreign affairs from a general point of view of “Everything Obama does is wrong.” I haven’t yet had time to read her articles to see if they make any sense, but with her “Ph.D. in political science with a concentration in comparative politics,” she at first glance seems to know what she’s talking about, and could be very valuable to a Romney campaign that seems to have ceded foreign policy to our smart, strong President. Well, check out Becky’s latest anyway, and tell her what you think:

I’m gonna link to Geoff under our national blogs; but since national issues are not our main specialty here he won’t be getting an RSS feed off to the side, although we do appreciate him linking to us!

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Jason Sumague-Young speaks truth to power at the fabled August 8 Anaheim Council mega-meeting. Previously unpublished photo by Jason’s secret fan Chris Prevatt.

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But my money for who’s gonna win the OC Weekly’s coveted “Best Political Blog” this year (which we won once before we deserved it – shades of Obama’s Peace Prize) is Jason Sumague Young’s “Save Anaheim.com.” Because Gustavo loves it so much. As do I.

Previously called “No Jordan Brandman.com” until a bunch of us convinced Jason that, as objectionable as Jordan is, he is far from Anaheim’s only dangerous corporate villain, Save Anaheim regularly amazes with its embarrassing exposes from that big city’s corporate/political power nexus.

Jason is a Republican turned Democrat, but like everything that’s going on in Anaheim these days, his blog is WAY beyond partisan. And me and Jason and Cynthia get together regularly to compare notes. How more post-partisan can you get?

Some recent scoops and insights from Jason’s blog (often picked up later by the Weekly) :

About Admin

"Admin" is just editor Vern Nelson or associate editor Greg Diamond sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.

8 Comments

I’ve just bought SaveThinkingRightForYourselfAnaheim.com, in case they someday want to combine forces. Good luck to all of them, including even Willis — although really, he’s got to be kidding about all of that, right?

He’s still crying about how he got his ass kicked on this site, and he still doesn’t answer direct questions about his unsubstantiated assertions. Same old drivel.
Here’s an example of his half-baked thought process. He puts out there a personal belief, and then if you attack that belief, he complains that you are attacking him personally.

Hi Geoff ! We know you can’t help yourself, and you are over here looking to see what people are saying about you. Your whining about how people mistreated you here is so weak. If you really feel that way you should keep it to yourself, and certainly not admit to it on your own site!

He always struck me as far too thin-skinned to have a reasoned debate with. That, and he had a nasty habit of avoiding answering questions that exposed the lack of objectivity/truthiness in his posts and comments.

“He puts out there a personal belief, and then if you attack that belief, he complains that you are attacking him personally.”

I agree, “ad hominem”, ad nauseum.

I’d also add that whenever Geoff was losing the argument he would attack you for being anonymous. I always got the feeling that when really threatened (rhetorically, of course) that if Geoff had his way he would reveal identities as payback.
Geoff relied too much on his “credentials” and not enough on the quality of his arguments.
In my opinion, blogs and bloggers should be judged on the merits of their posts and comments, who you are, your sex, your nationality etc. shouldn’t matter.

That’s really silly annonster. I have known your real name for some time and never revealed it no matter how spurious your attacks. I never mentioned my credentials or made them a part of my story (still don’t) so I am not sure how I “relied on my ‘credentials’.” I would agree that posts should be judged on their quality and not on the background of the person writing them. Ironically, it is the left and you in particular that always confused sticking to the argument versus pithy platitudes that conveyed little or no thought instead of reasoned argument. Always too much heart and not enough brain.

Your right Geoff, I know that you know who I am because you made it very clear, I wonder why that was? I am pretty sure it was Vern that kept you from “outing” me.

Geoff as a delusional right winger I wouldn’t expect you to see your self clearly, but let me assure you this, you oozed your pedigree. The fact that YOU, Geoff Willis a successful lawyer said something made it so. Never mind the fact that most of what you posted was inane, warmed over garbage that you found reverberating all over the right wing blogosphere.

As for who had the more “reasoned” arguments, well, as I recall you did like to project your failings on to others.

Thanks for the (mostly) kind words Vern. Didn’t really leave in a huff, just wanted to do my own thing and I am having a lot of fun with it. I really would like to have vibrant and intelligent discussions from all perspectives as long as folks stay away from purely personal attacks so those loyal to the Juice are invited and encouraged to check us out.